Private credit just scored another power play. Thoma Bravo is buying Boeing’s (BA, Financial) flight navigation unit—including Jeppesen, ForeFlight, and other digital assets—for $10.6 billion, and it’s not turning to Wall Street banks for help. Instead, a $4 billion loan is coming from private lenders led by Apollo Global Management and Blackstone. The seven-year financing carries a spread of 4.75% over benchmark rates and was structured as a unitranche. Apollo, the administrative agent, has been on this for a while, even offering pre-agreed staple financing as part of its private credit partnership with Citigroup.
The lender lineup reads like a who's who of alternative credit: Ares, KKR (KKR, Financial), Blue Owl, and JPMorgan’s (JPM, Financial) private credit arm are all in. While the final structure could still shift, one thing’s clear—direct lenders are now writing checks the size of small IPOs. And Citigroup? It’s playing middleman—advising Boeing on the sale while sourcing deals for Apollo in their $25 billion partnership. Citi brings in the deals. Apollo brings the money. Simple. Effective. Disruptive.
This isn’t just a big buyout—it’s a signal. Private capital is no longer just an alternative; it’s becoming the primary route for mega deals. With traditional banks sidelined by regulation and public markets still wobbly, institutional money is stepping in fast, light, and fully loaded. For investors, it’s a shift worth watching. Because when the biggest names in credit are underwriting the future of M&A, the rules of the game aren’t just changing—they’ve already changed.
